Kansas Football: Les Miles has program headed in right direction
Kansas football nearly pulled off the upset of all upsets on Saturday night, losing to the 15th ranked Texas Longhorns on a last second field goal. Even though the Jayhawks lost, Les Miles has this program on the right track.
What an upset it would have been had Cameron Dicker‘s 33-yard field goal not gone through the uprights. But it did go through, and the Kansas Jayhawks were unable to hand the Longhorns one of the the biggest upset losses from the weekend (that honor goes to Illinois).
Yes, KU lost this game, but it was by a score of 50-48 and they gave the Longhorns EVERYTHING they had until the bitter end. That’s what you want to see from your football program and it’s something Kansas fans hadn’t seen from their football program in over a decade. We’ve now seen that Les Miles is the right man for the job in Lawrence.
Looking at the numbers from this game, it was an offensive output by both sides, as those Big 12 defenses really lived up to the stereotype. Both quarterbacks threw for over 300 yards and four touchdowns, but Carter Stanley didn’t have any interceptions like Heisman hopeful Sam Ehlinger did.
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Both run games were dominant, with the Jayhawks totaling more yards on the ground with 259 (and 190 of those coming from Pooka Williams) while the Longhorns had 239 yards. Each run game put up two touchdowns each with Williams getting both of them for KU.
As mentioned above, Carter Stanley had a nice day, connecting with nine different players for a total of 310 yards and throwing for four touchdowns. Stephon Robinson had two of those four touchdowns while Andrew Parchment and Takulve Williams had the other two.
The defense wasn’t particularly great, but they did pick Ehlinger off once and forced a fumble that Bryce Torneden recovered. Gavin Potter continued to stand out, leading the defense in tackles (six with two being for lost yardage) and sacks (one and a half). So it wasn’t all bad, but allowing 50 points isn’t the best look, even for a Big 12 defense.
All of this being said, the Jayhawks were right there at the end of the game and very well could have left Austin with the biggest victory in Kansas football in well over a decade. The fact that they took the 15th ranked Longhorns down to the final whistle IN Austin shows that Les Miles is slowly, but surely turning this program around.
That’s all fans want to see in the first couple of years.
Next. All-Time Leaders in Receiving Yards for Kansas Football. dark
Moral victories are dumb, but for a program like Kansas, fans should be ecstatic about nearly pulling off this win on the road against a ranked team. A David Beaty led team didn’t do that during his time in Lawrence.
Next up for Kansas: a home game against Texas Tech. Can the Jayhawks knock off the Red Raiders? Fans might feel a little more confident about doing so now.